Wildfire News Of The Day (the Firebomber Publications blog) provides comprehensive international wildfire news. Subscribers include over 10,000 personnel from fire agencies, contractors, and government entities on five continents. "BEST NEWSLETTER I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY 32 YEARS IN THE FIRE SERVICE" - San Diego Fire Department Chief Brian Fennessy.

Monday, November 19, 2012

WILDFIRE NEWS - 111912

A letter to the editor in San Luis Obispo, California, rails against the new $115 state fire fee issued by the Board of Equalization (1). Washington Department of Natural Resources estimates that suppression efforts on wildfires in that state this summer cost $67.5 million (not counting costs associated with the damage done) (2); and Wildfire NOTD subscriber Ray Rasker, Executive Director of Montana-based Headwaters Economics, stated that with 200,000 homes in the wildland urban interface in Washington state, home losses to wildfires are bound to climb (3). Fire crews snuffed a small grassfire in Edmond, Oklahoma (4); but the plight of some businesses following wildfires in Creek and Cleveland counties is explored by the next item (5). Texas Forest Service reported an eight-acre wildfire in Montgomery County Sunday afternoon (6); while Ohio Department of Natural Resources fire officials warned homeowners in Washington County about the danger of debris burns leading to wildfires during the fall fire season (7). Fire crews in Kentucky's Daniel Boone National Forest are grappling with a 125-acre wildfire (8); but following a forest fire which scorched nearly 1,000 acres in Boone County over the weekend, foresters in West Virginia are concerned about continued dry conditions (9); and a 50-acre wildfire burning in North Carolina's Great Smoky Mountains National Park is now 50% contained (10). NASA's MODIS satellites are providing wildfire information to authorities in Tamil Nadu, India (11); while two wildfires in the Himalayan nation of Bhutan drew the attention of hundreds of personnel who strived to put out the blazes (12). A new study in the journal Natural Hazards revealed that researchers in Canberra, Australia, have documented the first confirmation of a fire tornado during bushfires in 2003 (13); high fuel loads across the region posing a danger (14). Bureaucratic delays are being blamed for the lack of bushfire refuges in Victoria (15); where police have kicked off the "Operation Firesetter" program intended to catch bushfire arsonists (16); even as Fire Action Week begins in that state (17). South Australia's Country Fire Service is using social media to get the word out about bushfires like last week's Eyre Peninsula blaze (18); homeowners in Adelaide being told to review their Bushfire Action Plan as temperatures soared (19); and to clear excess vegetation on their property by December 1st or face $315 fines (20). The bushfire situation in Western Australia, where an 80-hectare blaze was reported outside of Toodyay, is covered by the next article (21). And finally, firefighters grappling with a 200-acre wildfire in Hawkins County, Tennessee, made a surprising discovery: a dog-fighting and cock-fighting operation!